Kevin Rudd has pointed to the Coalition's broadband policy launch at Fox Studios as further evidence the possible commercial motivations of anti-Labor editorials in some News Corporation papers needed to be investigated.
Speaking on the ABC's 7.30 report Wednesday night, Rudd said it was the "democratic right" of News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch to call for his removal as the prime minister and for News Corp papers to editorialise against him, as The Daily Telegraph did with its front page headline on Monday "Finally you have the chance to Kick This Mob Out".
But he added "The question I posed through this is simple as follows: what is underneath all this? Is it to do with the national broadband network representing a commercial threat to Foxtel? I've seen some commentary on that and I've only just been looking back on the files today and discovered that in fact Mr Abbott's NBN policy was launched at the Fox Studios here in Sydney. I would like to hear some answers as to what discussions Mr Abbott may have had with Mr Murdoch on the future of Australia's national broadband network."
Asked whether there had been any conversations with Murdoch about the commercial impact of the major parties' rival broadband plans on Foxtel, which is 50% owned by News Corp, Coalition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull told Guardian Australia "none with me at all."
"I don't know anyone in the business world who doesn't think the NBN is reckless and irresponsible and I imagine Mr Murdoch has the same view," he said.
And he pointed to a blog he posted on Sunday in response to a newspaper column, in which he argues the Coalition broadband plan poses the greater threat to Foxtel because it would offer sufficient download speeds to bypass Foxtel and get videos and television shows directly from the internet, but more quickly and cheaply than under Labor's national broadband network.
Foxtel has said fast broadband presents opportunity as well as threat.
In a statement this week it said it "welcomes the deployment of broadband networks in Australia.
"Better broadband will improve Foxtel's ability to reach new customers and offer new services...today's broadband supports products such as Foxtel Go (Foxtel's mobile offering) and Foxtel Play (Foxtel's internet protocol television (IPTV) product). Even without government intervention, these networks would have developed and expanded. If government action improves in the reach and quality of broadband networks, or ensures that they are deployed more quickly, Foxtel will benefit by being able to offer products such as Go and Play to more Australians.
Murdoch has also tweeted: "We all like ideal of NBN, especially perfect for Foxtel. But first how can it be financed in present situation?"
Rudd has adopted a deliberate strategy of "calling out" what Labor strategists believe is a concerted anti-ALP campaign, waged in particular by the Daily Telegraph, which is widely read in the crucial western Sydney electoral battleground, and the Courier Mail in Rudd's home state of Queensland, where Labor must gain seats if it is to have any chance of victory. Some believe the "hostile views" of those two papers are targeted to influence the outcome of the election.
A spokesperson for News Corp has this week responded to Rudd's claims about The Daily Telegraph in this way; "every newspaper in the free world exercises its right to editorialise its position before an election, often on the front page. The Daily Telegraph supported Kevin Rudd in the 2007 election. This time it does not."
And regarding News Corp's coverage of the NBN, the spokesperson said this "our mastheads have, quite rightly, scrutinised a massive piece of government spending which is devoid of a cost-benefit analysis. But that does not equate to being against faster internet speeds – indeed The Australian in particular has constantly editorialised in favour of high-speed broadband – it is great for productivity and for our own business."
Deputy opposition leader, Julie Bishop, said Rudd's attacks on News Corp were a sign he was "losing the plot".
"I do recall that when Kevin Rudd lost the leadership to Julia Gillard, he hot-footed over to New York to seek career advice from none other than Rupert Murdoch. So he's spent the last three years leaking against his colleagues, getting stories in News Corporation papers and now that the News Corporation editorial doesn't think that he's fit to be prime minister, a view that his colleagues share, all of a sudden it's a conspiracy and then he's got this theory that somehow Malcolm Turnbull launching our broadband policy at Fox Studios was something sinister," she told the ABC's Lateline program.
"I mean, seriously? It's a showcase for high technology. It would have looked good on TV. Why wouldn't you launch your broadband policy there? But for Kevin to find something sinister in that, I think he's lost the plot."
